Adjustable combination action for pipe organs



Nov. 21, 1939. s. s. WATERS 5 Sheets-Sheet l Filed June 25, 1956 an uvznfof firpuel f Wakr/ No: no

NOV; 21, 1939. 5 5. TE 2180,784

ADJUSTABLE COMBINATION ACTION FOR PIPE ORGANS Filed June 23, 1956 s Sheets-Sheet 4 I same l fiwoi'err U) NOV. 21, 1939. s s WATERS 2,180,784

ADJUSTABLE COMBINATION ACTION FOR PIPE onems Filed June 25, 1936 I5 sheets-she't 3 Patented Nov. 21 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ADJUSTABLE COlVLBINATION ACTION FOR PIPE ORGANS 11 Claims.

The present invention relates to adjustable combination actions for pipe organs or similar tone producing musical instruments in which electro-pneumatic or electric systems of control are employed between the keys and tone controls at the console and the organ pipes or tone producing elements.

The invention relates more particularly to musical instruments of the type just referred to in which certain stop or tone controls or groups thereof may be selected by the organist to give any desired tonal characteristic and the group of controls so selected may be placed under the control of a-single push button or device known as a combination piston so that the particular tonal characteristic so selected may be produced at any time by the manipulation of the push button.

More particularly the invention relates to an improvement and simplification in the adjustable combination described and claimed in the patent to Gordon, $1 1,930,613 issued October 17, 1933.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a form of adjustable combination action which requires a minimum of electrical circuits and movable elements and of the type which lends itself readily to quantity production of its component parts.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a combination action constructed with a minimum number of operating or moving elements, and which also requires a minimum of soldered electrical connections.

Certain embodiments of my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a front perspective view showing details of the stop switch bars and the setter bars utilized in the present invention.

Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show details of the stop switch bars, Fig. 4 being a section of Fig. 2 at section lines 4-4.

Fig. 5 is a front perspective view of the combination action together with its actuating mechanism.

Fig. 6 shows in diagrammatical form, the electrical circuits and mechanical structure of the specific embodiment selected for illustration.

The invention is in improvements in devices for providing adjustable combinations of the stops of a pipe organ and is based upon the following principles. A vertical bar is provided for each stop for tone control and a horizontal bar is provided for each combination piston or button. The horizontal bars are mounted at right angles to the vertical bars and constitute a series of setter bars or traces.

The vertical bars carry contacts in pairs each provided for each horizontal setter bar while the horizontalsetter bars or traces operate contact wires so located as to be normally biased intoengagement with the contact means on the vertical bars. The vertical bars are raised or moved along their axes by suitable actuating means whenever the corresponding stop control in the organ console is moved to the on position. If any one or more of the horizontal traces or setter bars are moved normally in a horizontal direction the resilient contact members are disengaged from the contact on the-vertical bars, will again become engaged with either of the pair of contacts upon the vertical bars dependent upon the raised or lowered position of the vertical bar at that time.

All of the contact members of, each pair which have the same positions are connected in parallel to a circuit adapted to actuate a stop control on the console to the foff position, and similarly all of the other contact members of each pair are connected to another circuit adapted to actuate the stopcontrol on the console to the on position. The contact members controlled by the horizontal setters or traces are connected so as to be simultaneously electrically energized by a relay whichin turn is actuated by a corresponding combination piston or push button. It may be readily seen that if any set of resilient contacts is simultaneously energized by operation of a combination piston or-button, the stops or tone controls on the console will be actuated to fon or ofi positions dependent upon whether the resilientcontacts are engaged in the upper or lower hooked contacts. .Thus a particular group of stops or tone controls may be selected or captured on the combination piston dependent upon the positions of the various stop bars at the time the setterbar or trace is actuated. to momentarily release the resilient wires.

The operation of a combination action operating on this principle is more fully and completely described in United States Letters Patent to Gordon, #1,930,6l3, and the particular .form and arrangement of the parts above described in general, forms the subject-matter of my invention.

, One of the things contemplated by the present invention is an improvement in the construction of the stop bar contacts of this construction which is illustrated by reference to Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 5, a base board I0 carries a series of projecting resilient contacts II, II. These are normally biased to theleft by means of setter traces l2, l2, l2, having suitable openings therein through which the resilient contacts pass. These resilient contacts cooperate with a series of vertically mounted stop bars I3 similar in function to the stop bars described. These stop bars I3 carry two metallic parallel strips I4 and I5, spaced apart by a strip I6 of insulating material. A plurality of spaced B-shaped perforations I I are punched in each of the metal strips I4 and I5, one being provided for each resilient wire. More particularly these perforations comprise a large circular opening I'Ia connected by a straight portion I'lb with a smaller circular opening I I0, as shown in detail in Fig. 3. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, which are front and rear detail views, respectively, of a stop bar, the rear metallic strip I5 has the form of its perforations reversed with respect to the front strip I4, that is to say, the front strip I4 has: the smaller opening I la at the top and the larger opening at the bottom whereas the rear metallic strip I5 has the larger opening at the top and the smaller openin at the bottom.

The insulating strip I6 is completely cut away adjacent each of the aligned openings in the metallic strips as shown at the top of Fig. 2.

It will be evident from Fig. 1 in connection with the details shown in Figs. 2 and 3, that the resilient contact wires II Which are so located as to project through the B-shaped openings in the stop bars I3, will be an electrical contact with the front metallic strips if they are engaged in the upper portions of the B-shaped openings and will be in an electrical contact with the rear contact strips, and if they are engaged in the bottom openings, and these resilient wires II which are normally biased to the left by the setter traces I2, will be held or locked into this engagement by virtue of the form of the openings I'I, irrespective of vertical movement of the stop bars, unless such bias is removed by a traversing movement of the setter bars I2 to the right, which movement releases the resilient contacts II from engagement with either the upper or lower loop of the B- shaped opening, leaving the resilient wire free for relative movement to the stop bar in the straight portion Nb of the opening I1.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 5, the upper ends of the front phosphorus bronze strips I4, and the lower ends of the rear strips I5, are bent at right angles to the stop bar and thereby form resilient attaching means to suitably mount the stop bars in proper vertical position on the base plate ID. The mounting ends I8 and I9 of the stop bars are so bent as to have a normal downward bias thereby urging the stop bars downwardly against a horizontal limit bar 29 as shown in Fig. 5. The fixed ends of the mounting strips I8 and I9 are provided with suitable terminals to which the on and off circuits to the stop control magnets in the console may be soldered, as will be presently described in connection with Fig. 6.

The bent ends I8 and I9 of the stop bars therefore possess the triple function of mounting means to hold the stop bars I3 in proper position relative to the resilient contacts II; providing a spring bias means to normally hold the stop bars in a downward position; and furnish an electrical feed to the on and off circuits from the metallic strips on the stop bar without the necessity of any loose or moving wires.

When any of the resilient wires II are electrically energized current will be supplied to either the on or off circuit of the particular stop bar with which it is associated dependent upon whether it is engaged in the upper or lower portion of the B-sha-ped opening.

One form of mechanism for moving the type of stop bar, which has just been described, to an on and off position and for actuating the setter bars, will now be described. By reference to Figs. 5 and 6 it will be seen that each stop bar I3 carries at its lower end an armature of soft iron 2| located in front of the poles of the electromagnets 22. The armatures 2| are biased outwardly so as to normally miss a rocking pickup member 23 when the rear end of pick-up member 23 is pulled downwardly (see Fig. 6) by the pneumatic motor 24. The pick-up member, however, engages any armatures 2! which are located in front of an energized magnet. As the magnets 22 are connected in parallel, as shown in Fig. 6 by circuit 25, to the stop action circuits, it will thus be seen that any stops which are energized, or on will have their corresponding stop bars I3 raised each time the pneumatic 24 is actuated.

By reference to Fig. 5 it will be seen that the setter traces I2 which are normally biased to the left by any suitable spring mechanism, such as the compression springs I2a, are caused to be traversed to the right for setting the resilient wires II by means of links 26, and rocker arms 21 which engage with pins 28 in a series of vertically movable bars 29. When the vertical bars 29 are pulled downwardly, the pins 28 engage the rocker arms 2! and through the links 28 traverse the setter bars I2 to the right.

The mechanism by which the vertical setter actuating bars 29 are selectively moved downwardly, consist of a downwardly moving bar 30 pivoted on an axis 3| and actuated by a pneumatic motor 32. A series of armatures are mounted on the lower ends of the bars 29 in front of the poles of a corresponding series of setter electromagnets 34. These armatures are provided with hooks at their lower end so that when any one of the electromagnets 34 is energized, the hook will be pulled into a position in which it is engaged by the bar 30 in its downward movement and a corresponding rod 29, thus downwardly actuated.

A series of pins 35 are fixed in the rear of each of the vertical bars 29. These pins engage a metallic rocker member 36 pivoted on an axis 3'! causing the same to make contact with a resilient contact element 38. This is so spaced with reference to the rocker member 36 that this contact is made just as the downward movement of the bar 29 is initiated and due to the resiliency of element 38 the said contact remains closed during the entire downward movement of the bar and until the bar in its return upward movement almost reaches its initial position. Stating this another way, the initiation of movement to the right of any of the setter bars I2, establishes an electrical contact between the bar 36 and the contact 33 which contact exists during the entire movement of any setter bars I2 to the right and until they return to their initial position.

The contact 38 is connected by an electrical circuit 39 (see Fig. 6) to the electromagnet 40 which controls through conventional electropneumatic mechanism the operation of the pneumatic motor 24. As the pneumatic motor 24 functions to shift any stop bars I2 to the on position that have their electromagnets 22 energized, it will now be seen that as any selected setter bar II has its movement to setting position or to the right initiated, the stop bars will be at once placed in proper on and off positions dependent upon what stops or tone control elements are on at that time, and the stop bars will remain in proper selected position while the setter bars complete their motion to the right, thereby releasing the resilient contacts II from their normal bias and permitting the said resilient wires l to reengage with either the upper or lower portions of the B-shaped openings when the setter bars complete their setting function and return to normal position to the left. It will also be evident that the stop bars are not released from their preselected positions until the setter bars have almost returned to their original position, thus enabling the resilient wires to enter and engage the proper part of the B-shaped opening prior to the release of the stop bars by the deenergization of contact 38.

A preferred construction to simultaneously energize any given horizontal row of resilient contacts H and thus actuate a group of organ stops to preselected on and off position, will now be described. By reference to Fig. 6, it will be seen that a portion Ha of the resilient contacts ll project through and to the rear of the base It. Mounted just above this row of projecting contacts Ha, is a metallic wiper bar 4| pivoted on an axis 42. As is seen in Fig. 6, the Wiper bar 4! is connected to the common circuit indicated in said figure by a ground connection 420., to one terminal of an electrical energy producing device 43. The other terminal of this electrical energy producing device is connected by a circuit 44 to the frame 45 of the stop action device in the console, which frame has grounded to its one end of the on and oif magnet, windings 46 and 41. As has been previously indicated, these on and off magnets are connected by circuits 48 and 49, respectively, to the rear and front strips 25 and M, respectively, of the corresponding stop bar l3.

By the circuit connections which have just been described, it will now be seen by reference to Fig. 6, that when the Wiper bar 4| is rotated downwardly about its axis 42 it simultaneously contacts with the entire row of rearwardly projecting resilient contacts i la, and such contact establishes a circuit through either the front or rear metallic strips on each switch bar and through circuit either 48 or 49, and thence to either the on or off magnet of the associated stop action at the console.

The means for rotating the wiper bars 4|, will now be described reference being had to Figs. 5 and 6, in which, for the sake of simplicity, only one wiper bar action is shown although it is, of course, to be understood that there is a Wiper bar and corresponding action for each horizontal row of resilient contacts. By reference to Fig. 5, the horizontal roller 42 projects to the left of the base or frame Ill and carries a rearwardly projecting pin 50 engaged by a lug 5| on a vertical bar 52. The lower end of the bar 52 is provided with a magnetic latch or armature 53 located in front of the poles of combination magnet 54.

'When said magnet is energized the latch is pulled into position where it will be engaged by the actuating bar 30, when the latter is pulled downwardly by the pneumatic motor 32.

Reference is now made to Fig. 6 for a description of both the operation of the combination pistons to actuate to on and off positions, a group of stop elements, and for setting up or preselecting such a group. It should be understood that Fig. 6 is more or less a diagrammatic figure, and to simplify and render clear the electrical circuits, it has been necessary in this figure to separate the setter magnets 34 and setter bars 29 with respect to the wiper bar actuating magnets or combination magnets 54 and the vertical actuating bars 52, although it will be seen by reference to Fig. 6 that these two sets of magnets and bars are in a single row, any one of these vertical bars being capable of downward actuation by the single pneumatic motor 32 when latched to the bar 30. A single stop action and single combination piston is shown in Fig. 6, although it is to be understood, there may be as many of such devices as appears desirable.

The preselecting or setting operation will first be described. Assuming that the stop tongues 55 of the stop controls have been manually placed in the proper on and off positions to produce the desired tone to be set on a combination, the player then first presses the setter piston 56. This operation closes the circuit of a solenoid 57 which functions to shift the feed circuits 58 to contacts 59 and through its circuit to the setter magnets 34. In other words, depressing the setter button 56 shifts the feed circuits controlled by the combination pistons, from the combination magnets 54 to the setter magnets 34.

While the setter piston 55 is still held, the combination piston BI is depressed which acts to first, close the contacts 62, and second, to close the contacts 63. Closing of the contacts 62 feeds electrical energy through circuits 64', 58, 59, and 53 to the setter magnet 34, which thus causes engagement of the latch at the lower end of a setter actuation bar 29 corresponding with the particular combination piston 6| which has been depressed. The closing of contact 63 feeds energy into circuit 65 and to magnet 65, which through conventional electropneurnatic mechanism causes actuation of the pneumatic motor 32. The action of this motor is somewhat slower than the operation of the pick-up magnets 34, and, therefore, the operation of the combination piston 6| while the setter piston 56 is depressed, functions to pull down the corresponding setter bar 29. In the manner previously described, the downward movement of any setter actuating bar actuates the pneumatic motor 24, which in turn places the stop bars I3 in the appropriate on and o positions corresponding to the positions of the stop tongues 55. The downward motion of, the setter actuating bar 29, as previously described, functions to release a row of resilient contacts I I from their normal biased position and permits them to assume appropriate positions in either the upper or lower portion of the B-shaped perforations, previously described, when the combination piston BI is released and the setter actuation bars 29 returns to normal position.

After this setter operation is completed, if at any time the combination piston 6| alone is depressed, contacts 52 and 63 are again closed, the

solenoid 51 remaining unenergized, and electrical.

energy is fed through circuits 54 and 58 through contact 61 and circuit 68 to the appropriate combination magnet 54. The pneumatic motor 32 is again energized by virtue of the contacts 62 in this operation and the appropriate combination actuation bar 52 is pulled down, thereby actuating the appropriate wiper bar 4| and simultaneously energizing the horizontal row of resilient con tacts corresponding with the combination piston under actuation. This serves to feed energy.

through the circuits 48 and 49 to the appropriate on and 01T magnets in the stop-action dependent, of course, upon the previous set-up of the resilient Wires H and their engagement with the front or rear metallic strips of the stop bars.

It is to be understood that certain modifications may be made in this structure without departing from my invention. While the switch bar mechanism comprising the two parallel strips is especially adapted to cooperate in the type of mechanism described, it is pointed out that such construction may also be readily utilized with various other methods of actuation of the setter bars. My combination action, while especially adapted for remote operation, is of such small size, due to its construction, that the same may be readily located directly in the console and the setter bars may, for instance, possess direct manual operation.

It should also be understood that while conventional pipe organ phraseology has been used to describe the present invention, such as stop action, combination pistons, et cetera, the invention is not limited to a musical instrument which produces its tones by pipes or wind pressure, but is applicable to any type of musical instrument which produces a plurality of tone colors.

Such other modifications may be made by those skilled in the art as is apparent from the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a combination action, a base board, a plurality of stop bar elements mounted on and parallel to said base board and movable in a plane parallel to said base board, each stop bar element including a pair of metallic contact strips, a row of resilient contacts mounted on said base board and projecting therefrom substantially at right angles, a common engaging means for normally biasing said entire row of resilient contacts intolocked engagement with predetermined contact strips of said stop bar elements throughout the range of movement of the latter, and means for temporarily shifting said common engaging means and disengaging said contacts from said contact strips.

2. In a combination action, a base board, a plurality of stop bar elements mounted on and parallel to said base board and movable in a plane parallel to said base board, each stop bar element including a pair of metallic contact strips, a row of resilient contacts mounted on said base board and normally projecting therefrom substantially at'right angles to the same, a common engaging means for biasing said entire row of resilient contacts into locked engagement with predetermined contact strips of said stop bar elements throughout the range of movement of the latter, a contact bar located adjacent said row of resilient contacts and means to move said contact bar into simultaneous electrical contact with said entire row of resilient contacts.

3. In a combination action, a base board, a plurality of stop bar elements mounted on and parallel to said base board and movable in a plane parallel to said base board, each stop bar element including a pair of metallic contact strips, a row of resilient contacts mounted on said base board and having front and rear portions normally projecting therefrom substantially at right angles to the same, a common engaging means for biasing said front portions of said entire row of resilient contacts into locked engagement with predetermined contact strips of said stop bar elements throughout the range of movement of the latter, a contact bar located adjacent the rear portions of said resilient contacts, and means to move said contact bar into simultaneous electrical contact with the rear portions of said entire row of resilient contacts.

4. In a combination action, a base board, a plurality of stop bar elements mounted on and parallel to said base board and movable in a plane parallel to said base board, each stop bar element including a pair of metallic contact strips, a row of resilient contacts mounted on said base board and normally projecting therefrom substantially at right angles to the same, a common engaging means for biasing said entire row of resilient contacts into locked engagement with predetermined contact strips of said stop bar elements throughout the range of movement of the latter, a contact bar located adjacent said row of resilient contacts, common actuating means to either move said contact bar into simultaneous electrical contact with said entire row of resilient contacts, or to remove said bias from said resilient contacts, and selective means for determining which of these two functions said common actuating means will perform.

5. In a combination action, a contact member, a stop bar element comprising two electrically separate parallel contact strips each of which is provided with a contact engaging recess coopcrating with said contact member, insulating means between said strips, means for moving said strips jointly with respect to said contact member, and locking means holding said contact member in engagement with either of said recesses irrespective of said movement of the strips.

6. In a combination action, a stop bar element including two electrically separate parallel metallic contact strips, each of said contact strips being provided with a B-shaped perforation, each perforation comprising two circular portions one of which is larger than the other and a connecting straight portion, said perforations being so located in said strips that the larger circular opening on one strip is coincident with the smaller circular opening on the other strip, a resilient contact member projecting through said coincident perforations, and means for biasing said resilient contact member into either of said circular openings of said perforations and maintaining the same into the opening into which it is biased irrespective of movement of the contact strips.

'7. In a combination action, a base board, a

stop bar element movable with respect thereto and including two metallic contact strips, each comprising straight portions which are in fixed parallel relationship and electrically insulated from each other, and a right angled resilient end portion, said end portions comprising means for mounting said stop bar element on said base board for movement relative thereto.

- 8. In a combination action, a base board, a stop bar element movable with respect thereto and including two metallic contact strips, each comprising straight portions which are in fixed par allel relationship and electrically insulated from each other and a right angled resilient end portion, said end portions comprising electrical circuit connecting means for mounting said stop bar element on said base board for movement relative thereto.

9. In a combination action, a contact member, a stop bar element comprising two metallic contact strips, and insulating means between said 10. In a combination action, a contact member,

a stop bar element comprising two metallic contact strips, and a fiat insulating strip between said contact strips, each contact strip having an edgewise contact-making portion exposed beyond the edge of the insulating strip, said contact-making portion being divided into two recesses of dissimilar depth spaced on opposite sides of a projecting portion of said strip.

11. In a combination action, a stop bar element comprising two electrically separate parallel metallic contact strips, each of said strips being provided with a recess, each recess being so located with reference to the other contact strip as to expose an edgewise contact making portion of said other strip projecting beyond said recess, said recesses being contiguous to each other, a resilient contact member mounted substantially at right angles to said contact strips, and adjacent said recesses, means for biasing said resilient contact member into either of said recesses and into electrical contact with the edgewise contact making portion of the other contact strip, a projection located between said recesses for maintaining said resilient contact in the recess into which it is biased, irrespective of relative movement of the stop bar with respect to the resilient contact, and means for releasing said bias to an extent that said resilient contact is free from said projection.

SAMUEL S. WATERS. 

